How To Get Away With Murder Review: Anna Mae (Season 2 Episode 15)
How To Get Away With Murder ends its season with an anticlimactic resolution to the Hapstall case, yet manages to deliver spectacular performances from Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson.
In “Anna Mae,” Annalise goes home to escape. While there she tells her mother about the baby she lost and reconnects with her sister. Then the twists begin.
The entire Memphis plotline sounds like a play and looks like a play. Perhaps the writers took a page from August Wilson’s Fences or even A Raisin in the Sun, because the focus is on raw emotions, and Annalise is feeling.
She’s recovering from her gunshot wound, from her husband’s murder, from losing her son. We as an audience can sometimes forget that a lot of her traumas have shaped her into the person she is today, but we never put it out of our minds completely – and that’s because of Viola Davis.
We’ve talked about how much we love her acting in the past, and the simple truth is that it demands attention from the audience. It requires scrutiny, begs to be taken seriously in a show that is at time outrageous, and elevates How To Get Away With Murder in such a way that it’s easy to forget how uneven this season has been.
However, we can’t forgive them for uneven writing, boring cases of the week and taking an entire season to reveal that Caleb killed his parents and got rid of Catherine and Philip so he could be the only Hapstall to inherit. Or the fact that Frank caused Annalise to lose the baby and has been trying to make up for it ever since – which, color us surprised, is actually the worse reveal ever to come out of this show. Let’s be honest: we’ve all been beaten by someone in our lives, but we have never taken it to the point that we spy/arrange a hit on them for making our lives miserable.
We’re also disappointed at the fact that we don’t get these great characters moments or backstories from anyone else but Annalise. Oliver’s life-changing HIV status was mentioned once or twice but never explored, Laurel’s past was shown once, and Bonnie is a complete mystery. Maybe we’ll just have to wait and see where this show goes next season. We’re hoping it can go up and not down a slippery slope to cancellation.
What did you think of this episode of How To Get Away With Murder? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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How To Get Away With Murder airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.
Jessica Kreamer
Jessica has a degree in History, an MLA is Liberal Arts, and a great desire to consume as much quality television as she can. By day, she's an office worker and caregiver. By night, she's a tea drinking television fanatic. Her current favorite television shows include: Madam Secretary, How To Get Away With Murder, Jane the Virgin, and Veep. Her greatest wish is to make tea drinking into a payable skill. Follow Jessica on Twitter: @pythiaprophet